Fellas, clean up your bloody act

The Andrew Broad scandal exposed a Coalition with no political management skills, writes Peta Credlin. And why I was right to be exacting about the use of taxpayer entitlements.

WHEN news broke this week that the Member for Mallee, Andrew Broad, had flown to Hong Kong to hook up with a woman he’d been flirting with online, I said on air that the people of his electorate would take a dim view of this sort of carry-on.

And so it turned out as, just a day later, he announced he wouldn’t run again.

For years, as a prime minister’s chief of staff, I was written up as the tough enforcer who wouldn’t let ministers and MPs stay in the very best hotels or fly first class, or hire their own family to work in their offices on $130,000 a year.

Andrew Broad with his wife Rachel in Mildura after he announced his resignation. Picture: Jason Edwards

I was exacting when it came to their use of taxpayer entitlements and meeting cabinet deadlines, and implementing things. I think we now know why this was necessary.

When Broad told the Nationals leader Michael McCormack about his indiscretions weeks and weeks ago, someone in the Deputy Prime Minister’s office should have gone over what was confessed with a fine tooth comb. Broad’s career was probably unsalvageable, but his exit should have been managed so that it didn’t obliterate the good news of a hard-won surplus and an outstanding set of budget numbers.

The Coalition is good on policy but has no political management.

And fellas, clean up your bloody act.